From one Cub-killer to the next....

Well the A's have filled thier catching hole, pending physicals on all parties, with former all-star Jason Kendall while basically losing nothing in the deal. They giving up Arthur Rhodes, someone who broke down last year and was making too much money that the A's wanted to get rid of, and Mark Redman, who the A's also wanted to get rid of and can be replaced by any one of the starters imminent of reaching the majors in their system. There will be money exchanged in the deal, with A's sending a million or two to Pittsburg this year and the Pirates picking up half of Kendall's $13.5 million salary in 2007.

No matter what you say Billy Beane always seems to get his guy, usually discarding junk which he doesn't want in his system either. Despite the fact of Moneyball, GM's still seem to be more than willing to give this guy what he wants, and I just cannot figure it out, but kudos to him.

Now to the main point of this deal, Jason Kendall was a real Cub-killer during his career as a Pirate and I am happy to see him sent packing. However, Mark Redman has been an even bigger Cub-killer in his carrer and the prospect of facing him possibly 6 times next year does not bode well. Not including one game in the NLCS of 2003 Redman has completely shut down the Cubs over his carrer against them, including arguably his best pitching performance of last year in a 8 inning, zero earned run performance against the Cubs in interleague play.

Main point 1A in this deal also has me a little upset...the Pirates keep trading away guys that I believe can actually look like Pirates. If you put a black or red pirate looking bandana and some hoop earrings on Kendall or Aramis Ramirez while they were with the Pirates, i think they could be bonafide Pirate looking. Think about Jack Wilson with an eye-patch and a parrot on his left shoulder....good god he would be a freakin' Pirate. And he is the lone one left on the team now. So sad, they're entire team should have guys looking like pirates......

I though Vinny Castilla was dead.....

But apparently he's still alive enough to sign a 2yr/$6.3 million deal with the new Washington ______. Well this is the first move of the Jim Bowden era in Washington, before they even settled on a name which will eventually get changed when the team is sold sometime in the next year (if you ask me they should be called the "not-the-'spos" and bring Youppi with them). They followed this move up immediatley with the signing of Christian Guzman to a 4yr/$16.8 million deal, immediately starting the setting of the market for the other SS's. I like these signings for the club on a defensive standpoint. Both players are top-notch glove men with Guzman being possibly the top one in the AL last season. Both of them combing with the leather skills of Vidro will really help what will eventually be a pretty young staff for whatever they'll be called. The problem i have with these signings is this: Castilla will be 38 next year and they also garuanteed 2006, and this is a lot of money for a player going to be that old. You can also count on a power number decline to around 25 HR's, if that, for Castilla out of Colorado. The other problem is that as consisten Guzman has been defensively in his carrer he is just as inconsistent at the plate. He has only had one truly good year at the dish, 2001. All of the others have been decent to subpar. Maybe Bowden knows something we don't, but if Guzman doesn't pick it up at the plate this signing will look bad around the end of next season.


Sox Don't Get Vizquel

Well the Sox lost out on Omar because they wouldn't garuantee the third year option they offered him and the Giants did. Although he would have been a nice pickup for the palehosers I probably would have done the same thing if i were Kenny Williams and had the budget constraits Reinsdorf puts him through, I'm not sure i would have garaunteed more than year 1 to be honest. I don't know where the Sox will move now (maybe giving the job to Uribe) especially with Guzman signing today. But the Giants got thier man and move forward in thier quest of having the oldest lineup ever put together. If Felipe Alou can get his son there to play OF at age 39, they'll have five starters 37 or older, Alou, Marquis Grissom at 38, Bonds at 41, and Vizquel at 38 and JT Snow at 37.

I do feel badly for Williams on what Riensdorf made him do recently as well in stating that they will not work with Scott Boras or his clients (although i think a few current sox players are with him). This move does nothing but hamstring Williams as to who he can go after seriously, make the team less of a player in the market, and destroys the crediblity of the team even further. I know that Boras is a stain in the game but he does work under the rules the way thier written. Sometimes doing and saying what everyone wants to do is not the smartest way to do business. And i do have to hand it to the guy, he got teams to outbid themselves for key guys he had. The Dodgers outbid themselves by about $20 million for Kevin Brown, the Rangers by about $40 million or so for Chan Ho Park, and the Rangers agains by over $100 million on Arod. Supposedly the next highest actual offer from any other team was the Braves at $150 million (i don't know the years but i'm assuming 8 or 10). This is an amazing feat and one reason why teams should be allowed to announce what they offered players publicly during free agency.

Get the Farns Out.....

Has Kyle Farnsworth thrown his last hanging slider in a Cub uniform. After many years of failed promise and promiscuous activity around Chicagoland, it appears that he might have. I meant to get to this as my first real post but completely forgot about it till I came accross a blurb on it this weekend. Apparently on the last day of the last game of the year, Sammy Sosa was not the only guy who left early...Kyle Farnsworth didn't even bother to show up(bottom of article). And what shows something more about the team than i think i want to know, nobody even knew about it until Baker called the bullpen to get him up to pitch. How do you not realize that a key man in your bullpen is not even at the stadium until you call him into the game. Or maybe this is common practice in MLB, i do not know as I do not run a team or am a MLB player, but it does seem to me that you would know if all the players showed up or didn't for a game.

Farnsworth used to be a notorious partier till around the end of the 2002 season when the Cubs apparently gave him an ultimatum of getting to bed at a decent hour or getting out of town. Maybe he fell back into his old ways after the season was rendered meaningless that Saturday afternoon, or maybe he just didn't feel like showing up anymore...we'll probably never know due to the giant thing that the Cubs made out of Sammy Sosa's disappearance. Maybe he was pulling a Nuke LaLoosh from the begining of 'Bull Durham' and the clubhouse attendents couldn't find him. We will probably never know the real reason for the Farns not being there, and apparently, the media, the ones who can really get this question answered, do not care because they have the bigger Sosa fish to fry.

It will be really sad if the franchise gives the Farns away this offseason, and they will be giving him away at a deep discount with this last incident and with breaking his foot the way he did late in the year. He was poised to be the teams closer of the future, and he still can be, with his 100+ heater. In the beggining of the year he was throwing the ball with some of that Maddux-type movement over the corners of the plate, but that disappeared as the season went on. If he could ever get his slider to be really dependable and gets that corner movement back for the coming seasons, he could be a great reliever, but his window for that happening in Chicago might be up. On a positive note he did lead the league in recorded pitches of 100mph or higher, more than doubling the next closest man on the list.

Firin' up the hot stove...

All right I finally sat down to talk about some of the possible off-season happenings for this winter.

- To start off, although i didn't include him in the post below, once the Mets decline the option on Al Leiter (they have until Monday) he will become a free agent and would definently be included in the group below. If i could go back and change things i would Put Leiter as heading to the Yankees and David Wells would be heading somewhere else, either Texas or Philly.

- These are the guys i expect to resign with thie clubs for various reasons: Pedro Martinez, Jason Varitek, Brad Radke, J.D. Drew, Russ Ortiz, Jared Wright, Odalis Perez, Adrian Beltre, Jeff Kent(even though i predicted him to go to the Yankees), Woody Williams, Kevin Millwood (in another arbitration hearing), and Todd Walker.

- Carlos Beltran. The rumors all year have been him heading to the Yankees but i feel that they have bigger pitching needs right now as well as determining what's going to happen at 1B with the possibility that Jason Giambi will not be okay to play everyday next season, not to mention that they already have 3 outfielders under contract through next season and the man standing in Beltrans way, Bernie Williams, makes $12 million this season. Unless Bernie decides to quit and give his jazz guitar carrer full-time status, i don't think Beltran will be heading there. I believe that this is going to come down to the Angels and the Cubs, with the Cubs winning out in the end. The Cubs have a spectacular staff as well as some younger guys in place (patterson, lee, ramirez, barrett) and this will allow them to compete for the NL pennent for years to come.

- Adrian Beltre. I actually would kind of feel bad for this guy if he wasn't already a millionaire and soon to be $100 millionaire. He had one of the greatest years a 3B has ever had in the history of the game, plus he would be the gold glove winner every year if Scott Rolen wasn't in the league, yet Beltre will have few if any options for teams to sign with this offseason, unless he wants to play for way under market value. Every Major market team is set at the 3B position; Arod for the Yankees; David Wright with the Mets; the Cubs have Aramis Ramirez; the White Sox seem to be happy sticking with Joe Crede to see if he pans out, plus they dont want to act like a team in the 3rd largest market in the country by keeping thier $65 million payroll; and St.Louis has the previously mentioned Rolen. Plus many of the other clubs are set at 3B as well. The only realistic options Beltre has are coming back to LA; going to Baltimore; going to Detroit; or going to Boston (where there is a strong rumor of them making a run at Troy Glaus). No matter what he does he wont have the big market teams there bidding to drive up the price, which means he could be signed for less than his market value this offseason.

- The Closers. Let it be heard here first, the cubs will waste money on Troy Percival this offseason. They might get one good season out of him, and if they win a world series that's all that they'll need, but if they give him anything more than a 2yr deal they will get burned on it (on might get burned if they sign him period). The best closer on the market is Armando Benitez, who has basically closed out returning to the Marlins with comments made recently. Cleveland, looking to spend big on a closer, will be in the lead for his services. With a decent closer last year Cleveland would have easily taken 2nd place in the central and might have competed for the division crown with Minnesota.

- The Shortstops. Well there are a lot of them on the market, its a good thing that there are even more teams looking for guys at those positions. We'll start with Edgar Renteria, who i believe will either end up back in St. Louis or with the Cubs. He will be the guy that commands the longest and most expensive contract this offseason for SS's and those are the two teams that want him the most. The Cubs are also expected to make a run at Orlando Cabrera if they cannot get Renteria, and if they cannot get Caberera, they'll look at bringing back Nomar Garciaparra, who is an interesting case. After he was hit in the wrist 3 years ago he has never been the same player, in all facets of the game. He's been pining to move closer to his home-state California and it just so happens that the angels and dodgers have both expressed interest in signing him. My guess is here that he will either go to one of those two teams if the Cubs get one of the two men they want ahead of him, or if the Cubs dont get them he will come back to Chicago. Either route the best he will get is a one year deal with major incentives and option years. Too bad that he was 'insulted' at the 4 yr/$60 million extension he was offered two spring trainings ago. Even the one he was offered last spring at $12 million a year would still be nice compared to what he will wind up getting this winter. And finally, Omar Vizquel. Although he is a bit older, he can still hit and play stellar D, and the White Sox are still the odds-on favorite to sign him this offseason.

- Magglio Ordonez. The good news is he can hit 35 home runs and drive in 100 runs easily while playing solid defense in the outfield. The bad news, he was supposedly diagnosed with the same blood disorder which caused Bo Jackson to have blood flow eventually stopped from reaching his hip bone causing a major hip replacement surgery. The okay news is that the problem is centered in his knee and not as severe as Jackson's, thus it shouldn't be as big as a problem and with some luck, no problem at all. The Mets and Orioles are gonna be the final two players in this derby and the severity of the Mets interests come down to what they can do with some upcoming trades this offseason.

- Richie Sexson. Him going to the Mariners has been rumored as all but a signing of the contract away from happening for the past few days. The Mets might also try to make a late push but i would count on him going to Seattle.

- Corey Koskie. A native of Canada I wouldn't be surprised to see him head out to Toronto this offseason. They have a void at 3B and can use some of the Carlos Delgado money to sign him.

- One last guy that could very well be the offseason pickup of the year by whoever gets him will be Robb Nen, the former closer of the Giants. Nen hasn't pitched since the world series in 2002 due to shoulder problems and he appears to be close to returning if not by the beggining of next season, then soon after. Some team is going to take a flier on him and sign him to a minor league deal with incentives and if he returns to anything near what he was the 10 years prior to his injury he will be a great cheap pickup for some team this year.

Some more on possible trades this offseason to come when i get more time. The free agent madness starts this thursday, november 11th at midnight.....stay tuned.

Future of the Sox released.....

from the mexican league team he was playing for this winter. That's right, Joe Borchard, who once was considered the top prospect in the White Sox system, was released from his winter league team the Mazatlan Deer today. He reportedly was batting under .150 and half of his at-bats ending in strikeouts in just over 50 AB's. This is a pretty down note for the Sox, who were hoping he would be able to find a groove this winter and then compete for the starting RF job next spring. This release looks like a final nail in the coffin for Borchard, and unless a miracle happens in the next 6 months it looks like this former Stanford QB recruit will be done in baseball, or at least with the White Sox anyway. He was paid $5.3 million back in 2001 to stop playing football at Stanford, which i believe was a record bonus for a non-first round pick, but unfortunely for the Sox he has never lived up to the initial hype which he came with back then.

On another note it appears as if the Sox are trying to deal Paul Konerko to get rid of his $8.75 mil. salary ($9.25 if traded) and will go after Carlos Delgado to fill his spot. This is coming off last season in which Delgado turned down a trade at the deadline to come to the Sox, so i dont know good the legs are underneath this rumor. Without dealing Konerko the Sox have little over $20 million or so to sign free agents and pay raises for thier arbitration eligible players. They still are rumored to be the leaders for Omar Vizquel (2yr/$8 mil offer) and this signing may pan out as the Indians have said they are going to go young at SS, while other teams interested in him like Boston and Texas have supposedly stop focusing on Vizquel. The Sox appear to be hoping the close relationship between him and Manager Ozzie Guillen, both Venezuelans, will close the deal.

Free Agent Predictions

Well there are about a crapload and a half of impact free agents out there this offseason, and we're gonna look at the top ones in my opinion and try and predict where they're gonna end up....and maybe the winner will recieve a special prize from me at the end of it all.

Please go to the other thread to talk about the free agents/hot stove, this thread is gonna be for predictions only. Just copy the list below and paste it into your response and fill it in as necesary.

Here is the list of impact free agents this offseason(in no particular order):

1. Troy Glaus
2. Troy Percival
3. Orlando Cabrera
4. Pedro Martinez
5. Jason Varitek
6. Derek Lowe
7. Magglio Ordonez
8. Omar Vizquel
9. Corey Koskie
10. Brad Radke
11. Carlos Delgado
12. Richie Sexson
13. Moises Alou
14. Matt Clement
15. Nomar Garciaparra
16. J.D. Drew
17. Russ Ortiz
18. Armando Benitez
19. Carl Pavano
20. Carlos Beltran
21. Jeff Kent
22. Adrian Beltre
23. Steve Finley
24. Odalis Perez
25. Kevin Millwood
26. Eric Milton
27. Matt Morris
28. Edgar Renteria
29. Woody Williams
30. David Wells
31. Jon Lieber
Put an asterik (*) next to the one signing you think is most likely to happen.

Randy Johnson to the Sox??

And the White Sox no less, i for one cannot believe that they're competing with the Yankees in obtaining him this offseason but it apprears that Kenny Williams has made a large push according to the Arizona Republic. I'll tell you right off the bat that I am a Cub fan and a big one at that, but with tickets in such demand on the northside, aka impossible to get, if the Sox were to get RJ you can bet i would seriously consider heading to 35th and Shields every 5 days, and i would wager that plenty of Cub fans would do the same. And despite the fact that the Sox were percieved to have emptyied out thier farm system to obtain freddy garcia last season, there are still some prospects in the cupboard to offer up to the Diamondbacks, well at least more than the Yankees have to offer. It also helps to have one of the more aggresive GM's in baseball competing against the biggest empire of them all.

If they are able to pull off this trade it would definently give them a top 3 rotation in the AL of Johnson, Freddy Garcia, Mark Burhle, Jose Contreras, and Jon Garland in that order. Depending on what Boston and the Yanks do this offseason a possible move to the no.2 spot behind the Oakland Athletics is not out of the question. Johnson is obviously a legitimate ace and Garcia is a potential ace, burhle is a solid no2 pitching in the three spot, Contreras might have the best stuff among all of the pitchers, and Garland improves every year with age as control and deception oriented pitchers of his caliber do.

Combining this with what appears to be the lead in the race for omar visquel (rumored to be 2yr/$8mil) and assuming they do not wind up trading either carlos lee or paul konerko in the Johnson Deal it would give them a starting lineup (in batting order) of :
SS Vizquel
2b Uribe
LF Lee
DH Thomas
1B Konerko
RF Everett
CF Rowand
C Davis/Burke
3B Crede
(you can change out Uribe and Rowand either way)

Although the lineup is still righthand heavy you now have a guy at the top who knows how to get on base, not to mention the defensive upgrade involved. Also having a guy in Crede who can hit 25 HR's batting ninth while playing gold glove defense seems to be a pretty nice luxury as well. Looking at that lineup the only weak links seem to be catcher and RF(although Everett is decent), both at the plate and with the glove, but every team has its problems and none can be perfect, but this team would be sitting pretty with a solid lineup and very very good pitching staff. Unfortunatley there does need to be a bullpen upgrade and if these moves happen, probably very little money will be left or authorized by Sox Owner Jerry Riensdorf to be used. Shingo is good, but a upgrade could be used putting Shingo in a more effective setup role, as well as someone who can get the outs in the 7th and 8th innings between the starters and Shingo - if another closer isn't found.

Return of a former DP'er

Reports are running wild out of the GM meetings that the Dodgers are giving serious consideration to trading former Des Plainesian Shawn Green for Sammy Sosa. I can't begin to think of how much better this would make the Cubs. Green, has a Lefthanded bat, can still poke out 30 or so bombs, has some speed left, and is a gold glove winner in 1999. Although he's not as good as he was a few years ago and beyond, he's definently still has potential to be as good as he was as he is only 32 years old.


Sosa claims to be 36 right now and has looked a lot older than that the last couple seasons. Being the supposed clubhouse cancer that he is, this means we can get rid of almost everyone this offseason which has been causing problems (alou, sosa, mercker) and get the clubhouse in good shape to make a run at the pennant next year. It appears that the sticking point right now is Sosas clause which gives him a guarantee for next year to make $18 million, while Green's $16 million deal only runs through this season. This is another good point for the cubs if they can pull this off, if Green does have a good season and wants to come back, they could sign him for significantly less next season and have the money to spend elsewhere, especially with Zambrano, i believe, coming up for arbitration after this upcoming season.

First post

hey all, first post here, comment if you want